The recent West Asia crisis has once again brought spotlight on fuel conservation and substitution of imported crude oil. The highlights of all such discourses can be distilled in a two-pronged approach: pushing Electric Vehicles (EVs) and blend Ethanol into fuel to the maximum possible extent. But the most effective, zero-emission fuel saver that is already built into the human body – walking – is conspicuously absent from the scene. It is surprising that while the Indian government spends billions on infrastructure associated with the motorised transport as well as on fuels and EV subsidies, it treats walking as a “poor man’s transport” rather than a primary macroeconomic fuel-saving tool.

Let us look at the global scenario. The sidewalk coverage ratio and the average walkability index in the developed Western countries are 70%-80% and 0.75-0.85 respectively. The same in the Scandinavian countries reach 90% and 0.90-0.98, whereas in Singapore, these are 95%+ and 0.90-0.95. The sidewalk coverage ratio and the average walkability index in the major Indian cities ranges between 20%-35% and 0.52 respectively. In Singapore, 95%+ of the entire city features usable, continuous sidewalks, covered so you can walk without bothering about the inclement weather. In major Indian cities, usable coverage drops to between 15% and 35%.

What is more, even if a road technically has a sidewalk asset logged in a municipal registry, the functional, real-world usability score drops significantly because it cannot be safely navigated without stepping into traffic. It is not that we cannot build pedestrian-friendly cities. For instance, Chandigarh scores high with sidewalk coverage ratio of 70% – 80% and the average walkability index of 0.82 followed by Navi Mumbai with 65% – 75% and 0.78 respectively. Even the Lutyens Delhi has decent sidewalks barring few obstacles here and there. Neither is this something novel. I still remember good footpaths all around the Kanpur city from my childhood days in mid-fifties. So, is this a result of modernisation and prosperity? But then how does it square off with really richer and modern nations?

It would be useful to imagine the city development around pedestrians – and not motorised vehicles – because it changes the conceptual perspective dramatically. The order of priority then shifts from flyovers and fast-moving road network to walkable and uncluttered footpaths, efficiently functional pedestrian crossings and other such enablers. Indeed, taking care of this vital aspect may very well obviate the need of costly alternatives like foot over bridges and subways. Most of the popular tourist cities around the globe come across as pedestrian’s heaven. Even more importantly, while flyovers and motorways tend to take people from one point to another; the real exploration and experience of a place occur only on foot – critical not only for the sustainable growth but also for small businesses.

One of the key measures to encourage people to shift to sustainable transportation is to make cities `pedestrian-friendly’ by way of walkable sidewalks along with safe-to-cross roads. Unfortunately, with most energies and resources being allocated to improving infrastructure for motorized transport, the focus on pedestrians’ rights and safety remains a missing piece of the puzzle for sustainable mobility. Perhaps, a national ranking on `ease of walking’ could be devised on the lines of `ease of doing business’ because ultimately both are closely linked.

In modern, so-called millennium cities, footpaths (and zebra crossings) are often created as more of a proforma exercise: made just to tick-off the check boxes without any apparent consideration for their intended use. For instance, the height of footpaths with respect to the roads is normally kept as 1-1.5 feet and on top of that they will end abruptly. For anyone, particularly the senior citizens, to climb over them and then get down to road is an ordeal. I have had opportunities to visit a number of countries and everywhere I found footpaths to be not too high, with gentle slopes provided at the ends to get down from them easily (even for the wheel chairs). Year after year, a lot of municipal budgets must have been spent on tiling and retiling of our footpaths with those ubiquitous, interlocking tiles. But go over them just after a few weeks and it would be difficult to find stretches with uniform, even surface. Thus, even when one wants to use our footpaths, there is always that lurking fear of spraining the feet or stumbling down. Again, you may imagine the condition of senior citizens like me. While in other cities I could walk long distances without any anxiety or safety concerns, in Gurgaon even to go for morning walks in a neibhourhoods park, I have to depend on a car. Isn’t it a shame?

Walking and road-crossing remains a nightmare in bustling `Millenium Cities’ like Gurgaon, something that is taken for granted the world over. And sadly, many times it is not because of lack of financial resources but more because of a total administrative and political apathy, wrong approach, and bad design (if it can be called as design). Indeed, the top district and municipal officials as well as our elected representatives must be made to walk just 1 km. daily to get a first-hand experience of what we, the citizens, face daily.

That brings me to the second important aspect: the corelation with the elderly . A city that is hostile to pedestrians effectively strips away their independence and end up isolating them socially. For a 70-year-old in a city like Gurgaon or Bangalore, a simple trip to a neighbourhood place of worship, a park, or a doctor becomes a logistical nightmare. They are forced to call an auto, book an Uber, or wait for a family member to drive them simply because they cannot walk safely either because the footpaths are absent or are uneven or blocked. Let us not forget that all of these come with incalculable psychological cost to them.

In India, pedestrians are the largest category of road users, making up over half of all urban trips. An estimated 45 million Indians walk to work every day. When factoring in walking to access public transportation and markets, walking constitutes the largest overall share of non-motorized transport (NMT) and daily urban trips. Still, this is one of the most vulnerable road user groups, accounting for 20% of road fatalities in the country. The picture gets worse in metros where fatalities cross 40%.

Aiming for `Viksit Bharat’ and still relegating basic infrastructural facilities for the pedestrians to the back does not sit well with the overall narrative. Now the Supreme Court too has ruled the right to walk on safe, demarcated footpaths as a fundamental right. However, just designating something as fundamental right does not mean anything in practice unless the mind sets of the implementing agencies move from more glamorized infrastructural projects to more grounded ones.

END OF ARTICLE